The Information often feels hygienised and missing some grit. [Nov 2006, p.100]

The distinction between their sensibilities remain strikingly apparent. [May 2018, p.33]

The band's trademark guitars [are] so polished you can almost whiff the Mr Sheen. [Apr 2006, p.98]

Their habit of singing in close harmony can be pretty but leaves little room for interesting vocal interplay. [Aug 2013, p.68]

Finn seems more at home with the melancholy Paul Simon-isms of "Little Words" than with "The Struggle," a strained attempt to get weird and wired. [Aug 2011, p.84]

Fucked Up Friends isn't that great of a departure from this year's "Eating Us." [Aug 2009, p.105]

This sounds more like the Pixies than any of Francis' other solo albums. [Oct 2007, p.83]

One new track, "universal Child," fails to lighten the mood. [Jan 2011, p.94]

This is a seriously dense and elaborate album. [Nov 2011, p.94]

The sparser moments are undoubtedly tender, but the reverential glow soon dims, and the cliched cries of empowerment don't help. [Apr 2013, p.74]

There's a flightiness that lends the album a showreel quality. [Apr 2005, p.97]

Compelling in its way, but a bit Isobel Campbell when it should be Joni Mitchell. [Nov 2011, p.81

Accomplished but seldom inspired. [Aug 2005, p.106]

They've been an oddly schizophrenic beast, vacillating between sparse dronescapes and percussive rock jams conducted with primitive intensity. Peer Amid sits in the latter camp, although it constitutes both a sharpening offocus and a step up in ambition. [Feb 2011, p.99]

This is different (from his last studio album) again, the rhythms of Afrobeat now cleved to an ambitious jazziness. [Dec 2008, p.100]

Kweli, whose wordy rhymes can often read better than they flow, sounds nimble and at ease most of the time. [Oct 2007, p.96]

Even at times it's over-polished, at the very least, it's super-sized. [July 2008, p.113]

Still square, then, but they're loosening up. [Feb 2008, p.93]

Possibly cloying in large doses. [Jan 2006, p.112]

More rock music should be this reduced and addictive--but they'll have to think long and hard about self-parody some time soon. [Sep 2011, p.105]

Uneven it may be, The Palace Guards s just as often sublime. [Feb 2011, p.90]

This vaguely "concept" album comeback mostly consists of polished jazz-pop and coffee-table Americana with faint echoes of Steely Dan, Tom Waits and Prefab Sprout. [Nov 2011, p.83]

Holly lacks the heat and fire that makes the best so damn thrilling. [Apr 2014, p.83]

As spirited as this effort is, there's not much here to worry James Murphy. [Jul 2007, p.99]

Favours artifice over aptitude. [Apr 2003, p.122]

The rather prissy album versions are given room to breathe and take on a rather more energetic cabaret feel. [Nov 2009, p.109]

The austere brand of retro-rustic Americana sometimes sounds overly tasteful, but there are spine-tingling beauties here too. [Oct 2018, p.30]

The resultant mash-up of Noughties Brooklyn cool and Flaming Lips grand folly can exhilarare, but there is also a worrying tendency for Magic Chairs to strain for significance like Coldplay. [Mar 2010, p.84]

The music is classifed as country, but it's really clinical pop, enlivened by Swift's confessional lyrics. [Apr 2009, p.101]

There's much to admire here, but Flume needs to fix his identity. [Mar 2013, p.72]

The raw machine clap has been replced by Chaotic deconstruction of house music. It's a frequently awkward fit, lacking the fluid styling that makes the best hip hop. [Apr 2008, p.84]

Nonetheless, this is impressive, mainstream stuff. One hope their bluecollar heart will win out over their white collar power pop head. [May 2010, p.83]

An interim record before their next assault, perhaps. [Oct 2010, p.87]

It's a consistent Crowell effort, if a bit by-the-numbers. [Jul 2012, p.70]

A slight disappointment. [Jun 2007, p.88]

Despite the starry cameos and production turns, Shine lacks a little lustre. [May 2008, p.94]

It's solid stuff. But he's got a way to go to rise above his influences. [Jun 2011, p.86]

If you like Galaxie 500, Mazzy Star, Low, you'll adore them. If you don't, you won't. [Mar 2008, p.83]

On her 2019 debut album Keepsake, Harriette Pilbeam, who records as Hatchie, showed an inclination to take her shoegaze-infused pop onto the dancefloor. That’s something continued on Giving The World Away. [Jun 2022, p.28]

There's nothing not to like, but at 13 tracks in just 37 minutes, it's all rather slight. [Nov 2015, p.76]

Mazes proves that San Franciscan guitarist Ripley Johnson has not musically strayed too far from home. [May 2001, p.93]

There's no denying the pair know their way around a perky tune, but their songs are unmemorable because their sound is so heavily recycled. [Jul 2016, p.82]

Mudhoney these days, for all their pioneer status, mostly just sound like a regular, decent rock band. [Apr 2006, p.105]

There's something awkward about the whole: the album wins attention but doesn't keep it. [Jun 2010, p.95]

This is a less than ideal introduction to the oeuvre of the usually intriguing 'Dolls. [July 2008, p.93]

[The songs] shows, ultimately, the heights to which Jaffe can rise with time. [Jun 2012, p.158]

An uneven mix. [Feb 2006, p.70]

For much of the record the Djangos are the same sweet-toothed bunch. [Feb 2018, p.24]

Erratic but still occasionally sublime. [Jun 2020, p.37]

The result is neither an especially loud or revelatory one. [Sep 2018, p.32]

There are flashes of grouchy greatness from all three--but only flashes. [Jul 2010, p.115]

It's sleek, goth-leaning alt.pop, but ILYBICD's music ultimately leaves less of an impression than their band name. [May 2006, p.109]

Singles Collection Volume 3 betrays its genesis as something of a grab bag. [Apr 2014, p.94]

What could be a kitschy nostalgia trip, however, becomes something more thanks to the songs themselves. [Apr 2008, p.94]

Although the tongue-in-cheek title nods to the familiarity of these new songs, there's no shortage of ideas. [May 2020, p.27]

Cool or not, at least they're going for it. [Sep 2015, p.76]

Overall, Butler's pedestrian appropriation of the clunky beats, tinny handclaps and squelchy vocoder effects of yesteryear sound stale and repetitive. [Jun 2014, p.78]

Moth's incessantly hiccuping polysyllabic pop lacks soul and sticking power. [Feb 2016, p.73]

There are some cloying twee moments, but the players' telepathic interaction imbues even their slightest songs with crackling immediacy. [Nov 2022, p.36]

This fourth album is straining toward a more commercial sound, but pop crossover needs hit songs and F&M's best moments are still driven by ace rhythm section Matt Hainsby and Lee Adams. [Feb 2011, p.87]

NIO seem more intent on gazing at shoes than stars. [Apr 2004, p.92]

A return that is as warmly welcome as it is wholly unexpected. [Oct 2002, p.122]

There's a punch that saves them [from] drifting into coffee-table politesse. [Feb 2011, p.98]

Smith's squeaky, adenoidal vocal, long a barrier to Danielson's popular acceptance, has softened somewhat, while the band are in fine form. [Apr 2011, p.78]

Al Jourgensen is bringing Ministry to a close, and truthfully, it's the right time. [Nov 2007, p.113]

There are some great passages of live-wire electronica, but more often it's strangely lacking any aura or elemental spark. [Oct 2016, p.39]

Though the 18-minute celestial sludge of "The Opulent Decline" conjures all the right imagery, you suspect Oneohtrix Point Never invariably got there first. [May 2013, p.67]

Despite the epic pretensions of the 16-miniute finale, "Tao Of The Dead Part Two,", sadly, this sort of tribute to rock's historical hinterlands yields fewer surprises each time. [May 2011, p.77]

Their benefactor this time is Brian Burton, aka Danger Mouse, who evidently hears something in their moody atmosphere-building. By and large, Pussy's Dead reveals them as a muso sort of band. [May 2016, p.69]

It's occasionally very beautiful, but this is so far removed from values of immediacy and accessibility that Stevens' core audience are likely to be left non-plussed. [Dec 2009, p. 113]

It's perhaps inevitable Ladytron sound as if they're going through the motion on this solid fourth album. [July 2008, p.102]

Body Music has the feel of an album rushed out for the summer. [Aug 2013, p.67]

Striped of the visual element, what remains here is sparkling Nordic synth-pop, uplifting and accessible, but increasingly conventional. [Dec 2014, p.77]

The London quartet signpost the album with handsome literary and academic allusions in anticipation of an edifying dance direction, but end up trotting out the kind of meek synthfunk once propagated by the likes of Hot Chip and Metronomy. [Feb 2014, p.73]

Sadly, Nas brings self-importance to "Strong Will Continue," that's encumbered his latter career, but it's the exception on a broadly fruitful collaboration. [Jul 2010, p.115]

Though the stadium-EDM elements of "Miracle" are an unwelcome addition and there's a slight clash between two brands of brooding, when Matt Berninger guests on "My Enemy," Chvrches excel at an electro-pop simulacrum that's actually more craftily structured than most of their favourite records of 1982. [Jul 2018, p.26]

Though slight in parts, and hardly groundbreaking, for those craving a little sunshine in these dark days, Vessel Of Love brings the rays. [Feb 2018, p.25]

Some of her best singing in years. [Sep 2002, p.114]

Only when she reels off her thank-yous at the end- a list as interminable as an Oscars speech - does she sound remotely happy. [July 2002, p.120]

A couple of songs could do with more melody and less of Mike McCready's spidery guitar breaks. [Dec 2002, p.132]

There's still an organic, soaring bluster to the music, too, though a shortage of obvious anthems this time. [May 2008, p.100]

Not easy listening, but a reminder that to evolve, we must first emerge from the slime. [Apr 2010, p.91]

Born In The Echoes feels a bit Chemical Brothers by numbers. [Aug 2015, p.72]

Though straining at times under its rhapsodic pretensions, at its best it's an ambitious symphonic spree. [Oct 2005, p.100]

While the dubbed-out "see You When I Want to" nods to ESG, Gentle Grip too often feels more like a limp handshake. [Aug 2020, p.36]

The idea was to expand Gogol Bordell's palate to accommodate the Ukrainian-American's recently adopted homeland of Brazil. The Good news is that it doesn't matter--if Gogol Bordello still sound like an Eastern European answer to The Pogues, it still means they're doing something nobody else is. [Jul 2010, p.108]

Evident is a sizeable debt to '80s electropop. [Aug 2006, p.84]

For the most part, it's an effective addition.... The only real snag here is Rose's voice, which sometimes sounds so detached as to be barely present. [Nov 2013, p.78]

Predictably, it's all over the map, but The Golden Hour fizzes with invention. [July 2008, p.106]

The Black Keys must take credit for negotiating the minefield of the rap/rock crossover without any serious casualties, but maybe an R&B/rock crossover would have reaped even greater rewards. [Jan 2010, p. 113]

Biblical parable and bumptious force-of-nature feminism, ensure Better Day fulfills its upbeat mission. [Sep 2011, p.93]

Haunting lamentations that owe as much to the Jewish Klezmer and US folk traditions as to Slint. [May 2005, p.110]

Thier latest dusts off their usual blend of late-'70s Clash-styled punk, ska and dub reggae, but applies topspin via 'Civilian Ways,' a bluesy folk exercise inspired by the return of Armstrong's brother from Iraq. [Sep 2009, p.92]

While there's not any unity of occasion to speak of, the cover of "Arms Aloft" by Joe Strummer And The Mescaleros is an impressively galvanising opener, new material sitting comfortably alongside older, more diffuse cuts. [Feb 2011, p.95]

A curate's egg of tested pop styles.... Though hardly the album-length E-rush of career peak Tellin' Stories, this approach still offers small gems. [Jul 2004, p.101]

It proves a diverting tour round Seeger's perennial concerns. [Jan 2008, p.111]

Treasury Library Canada feels less whimsical and more polished, although Hamilton still sticks closely to his signature mix of rich acoustic chamber-pop arrangemnts and quietly barbed lyrics. [Mar 2009, p.107]

Ian Brown follows an idiosyncratic path in keeping with My Way’s title--mixing up the kind of heavily synthesised rhythms learned from Jamaican dancehall with a curious cover of Zager And Evans’ dystopian folk oddity 'In The Year 2525,' some insidious grooves and, on closer 'So High,' a somewhat wayward stab at soul.